So, the slow-motion Cataclysm is finally occurring tomorrow. (If you read wow blogs, you’ve known this was coming for, well, forever, so I don’t feel the need for a spoiler tag. I did have the fleeting thought today, though, that someone, somewhere, is going to have one hell of a wtf? moment.)

Luckily, cats are pretty unscathed. (You know us, always landing well from a fall and all…) Bears took quite a nerf (stamina reduction, Savage Defense reduction) for balance purposes, but the only part of that which will affect cats is the LOTP heal nerf from 8% to 4%. Survival Instincts is now only a 50% damage reduction, but it goes from a 5m CD to a 3m CD, which is probably a net positive. Thorns reverts back to near-uselessness for PvE content, after a month in the sun.

Of slightly more concern is the quiet adjustment in activation requirements for our metagem, the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (thanks to Feral Instincts for pointing it out). It previously had required 1 gem of each color (easily satisfied by a Nightmare Tear), but now requires more Blue gems then Red gems. Since our best gemming strategy revolves around agility (red) gems, this is bad. You’ve got three options:

“Screw it.” Doing nothing is the most cost-effective strategy, albeit one with a 3% dps loss.

Socket another metagem with easier requirements for now, and wait until 85 to figure it out. My preferred option; unfortunately, there’s not many metagem alternatives out there. Something like the Destructive Skyflare Diamond would be best. 2.5% dps loss with some small unquantifiable survivability increase (or pick one of the PvP metas).EDIT: Paona pointed out in the comments that the Thundering Skyflare Diamond would be a better replacement. I agree wholeheartedly, and blame wowhead for not weighting it properly.

Regem entirely to meet the metagem requirements. Not recommended unless you’re still pushing for a progression kill (and with the tank nerfs, your odds of that just went down). My head hurts trying to figure out an optimal strategy, but I figure it’d probably be socketing all Glinting Dreadstones (which count for red + blue) then tacking another blue/green gem on top. Hopefully, you don’t have too much hit already.) Roughly appears to be a 1.5% dps loss.